It's approaching January and I should be packing for India. My mind should be on mahseer and the task ahead - a forty-pound plus fish on the fly. But it's not. My concentration is five or so thousand miles west on a little stream in mid-Norfolk. So, okay, it's cold and there's bone-chilling drizzle in the air, but that doesn't stop me. It's very early in the afternoon and I'm standing on the banks of the Wensum, that little-known chalkstream that meanders through some of the eastern county's lushest meadows and woodlands. Gorgeous. So are the fish I'm after today. A dace is everything that you'd want on a grey day like this: silver, streamlined, bold biting, only ounces but always up for it.
I'm on a small carrier, only four or five yards across. The water's streamy, gurgling two feet deep over gravels. I know there are dace here: I can see them in the clear water and, miraculously given the weather, there's even a spasmodic rise going on. Look there. A super fish, perhaps eight or ten ounces even has just flicked to the surface and snaffled something floating by. Too tiny for me to identify though. I'll begin with a nymph.
The perfect water for a three-weight outfit - the seven-foot Marksman as it happens. A tiny Pheasant Tail tied on an eighteen, under the smallest strike indicator in my box. It's Czech nymph style really and I'm just rolling the fly four or five yards upstream, letting it come towards me, keeping constant contact and wham, down that indicator goes. This dace is eight ounces but you wouldn't believe how it surges off downstream making the little reel scream as it gives off ten, perhaps fifteen feet of line.
Now, it's four p.m. and too dark, in reality, to continue. I walk back over the darkening flood plain towards the car aglow with a deep contentment. I guess I've fished three quarters of a mile of water. I've caught perhaps twenty dace. The biggest might have made eleven ounces. I've had six on dries and fourteen or so on nymph. I've missed perhaps twenty takes. That's the way it goes when you're dace fishing - imagine trying to hook little shards of lightning. Oh, and I caught a chublet, too, and a roach of perhaps a pound that made me think the dace record was on the way to my net. I've seen the tracks of an otter (not so good that), two pairs of kingfishers and I crept up on a heron so quietly that it shrieked! I haven't seen a soul. There are no grayling here so with trout out of season who in the little syndicate would dream of taking a fly rod down to the river today? Glad I did. A forty-pound mahseer on a fly? Good. As good as this? Doubt it.
IN FACT
- Dace tend to live in water rarely deeper than four feet. A floating line, therefore, is a virtual necessity. A three or four-weight kit is just about ideal and on most waters, you can get away with a seven foot rod. Obviously something longer is good for bigger waters and more conventional Czech nymphing techniques. On the Tweed, for example, I'd opt for a four-weight, ten foot - the Marksman and the Streamflex both take some beating. Keep tippets light - two pound breaking strain is about right. Dace aren't as cautious as trout but they eject anything unnatural faster than a grayling.
- Dace are for more widely located in the UK than is generally thought. The Exe in Devon, for example, has some beauties. Wales is well-stocked along with the Yorkshire rivers and most streams in central and eastern England. There are some marvellous dace in the Kennet to the south and on the Tweed in the north. Look for shallow, streamy stretches running over gravel or sand. Remember the dace close season is between 14th March and 16th June. Catch these glorious little fish in February and March and you will find them deep and pigeon-chested before spawning.
- Most small nymphs will be accepted. I rarely go larger than a sixteen and, at times, it is vital to go down to a twenty or even a twenty-two. It's always a good idea to take small dries - even in winter there will often be a hatch around mid-day. I personally like patterns on a sixteen or an eighteen - black gnats, mini black sedges, red tags, and most small emergers seem to do the trick. In truth, location seems more important than fly choice.
